The line between a nationally-ranked powerhouse and a team struggling to put wins on the board can often be very thin.
In the second half of the Dartmouth field hockey team's 3-2 loss to the Ivy League front-running Princeton Tigers Saturday in Princeton, N.J., that line became even more blurred.
From the looks of things, you would never have known that Dartmouth was the team that had lost three consecutive games and was 3-8 overall and 1-3 in the Ivy League while Princeton was 8-2 overall, 3-1 Ivy League.
The Big Green out-shot Prince-ton a surprising 14-10 in that second half, after Princeton dominated them in the shot department, 15-3, and just about every other part of the game in the first half.
But in the end, Dartmouth just ran out of time.
"We were definitely fired up towards the end of the game," Amy Coughlin '96 said. "If the game had gone into overtime we definitely would have won. Their defense was crumbling."
Princeton may have finished the game with a fizz, but it sure started with a bang. The Tigers did not even take time to break a sweat as they lit up the scoreboard just 48 seconds into the game.
After that wake-up call, Dartmouth's defense tightened up and keeper Lauren Demski '96 turned into a human wall in goal with 11 of her 16 saves on the day in the first half.
Amy Coughlin '96 evened the game with 16:55 to play in the half when she took a well-aimed pass from Sarah Devens '96 and slammed it in the goal.
Princeton answered seven minutes later as Lisa Rebane was on the receiving end of the first of Amy McFarlane's two assists against Princeton. Kim Simons converted on the other assist six minutes into the second half to put the Tigers up, 3-1.
Dartmouth kept the pressure on throughout the half and showed that, if anything, it wouldn't be a push-over. Devens finally cracked the Princeton goal for her team-leading sixth goal of the season with 5:27 to play as she beat Princeton goalie Melanie Orpen in a scramble in the box.
